Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Nutshell by Ian McEwan


Not all novels we read are required to “Suspend Disbelief” to be successful.

Maybe it’s not so much the belief that is important, but rather that disbelief has a broad range including talking animals (kid’s books) and alien beings (SciFi).

At least, in our case with “Nutshell”, the protagonist baby is Homo sapiens, in the truest sense, since he is wise. 

We learn, from this very communicative prenatal being that he is a bon vivant extraordinaire with a strong influence from southern France (he enjoys a Meursault rather than Champagne).  His knowledge of literature and the arts is due to listening to podcasts.  This is also how he has developed reasonable psychological and analytical skills, allowing our inside (double entendre [pardon]) observation of an A-to-Z homicide: plan, execution, and wrap-up.

There are probably crimes committed somewhere on this Earth every minute.  The motives behind the plan are fully transparent: greed and lust.  Our author does not attempt to imitate either A.C. Doyle or A. Christie with execution details of the crime.

The delicious joy of the read lies in the unfolding of the story, comically, step-by-step through the detective work of our raconteur narrator.

è     Not advisable if pregnant.

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